Empire Today

Empire Today through BJ's Warehouse Clubs

On 11/22/06 we were to have carpet installed after meeting with a sales representative from Empire today arranged through BJ's Warehouse Clubs. The installation scheduler phoned us to ask if they could do the installation earlier then our scheduled time. We told them to come on out that we were home and that would be fine. The crew arrived and no one spoke fluent English. The installers communicated that they couldn't do the installation "no place to cut carpet", "we take to warehouse and cut come back 11 tonight". My husband said no way. He called the local number and was told that they workers were saying they couldn't do the installation as our dogs were bothering them, which they weren't. They apparently couldn't communicate that to my husband. He told them to cancel the installation. At that time the installers left. Apparently someone spoke with them and told them to return. Upon their return they cut the carpet on the road in front of our house, as we have no garage, which the sales representative knew as he visited us in our home for the estimate. We were told that included in the cost of our installation would be the moving of our furniture. I spent the night before the installation removing all lamps and knick knacks etc from the all the furnishings in preparation. The installers were asked to move the furniture and they told my husband "no, you move". My son and my husband moved all the furnishings. When the carpet was finally laid down, the workers began to reuse the old carpet molding strips instead of the new ones. My husband asked about this and the response was "yes molding". The carpet was being laid in our living room and hallway and was to be blended underneath the doors to the rooms off the hallway which wasn't done, the carpet was lumped up on one side. Each time my husband asked about this he was given a smile and a vague response due to the language barrier. When they were finished my husband again asked about them moving the furniture back on to the carpet. The response "you want move furniture?" My husbands response was yes, you are supposed to move the furniture. He also inquired about our customer care package and paperwork for the installation. "They no give us" Then they went out to their van, got in and promptly drove away. My husband phoned our sales representative who told us we needed to call the national office. On 11/27/06 I phoned and spoke with Derrick in Customer Service. He took my complaint but told me however, that he would need to send this to the local office who would be contacting us in 1-3 business days. We have yet to hear from anyone. I have also contacted my local BJ's Warehouse and the national office for BJ's to inform them of this ugly situation. I told Derrick from Empire that I wanted a refund for the labor we were charged for the furniture moving and for the price of the new molding and more off for the shoddy workmanship. He had no response other then to tell me someone would be talking to me.

Don't use Empire...bad news

Linwood and Laurie Sealey